


It Could Be Sweet (like a long forgotten dream)

by Harryskiwiposes



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 04:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17780654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harryskiwiposes/pseuds/Harryskiwiposes
Summary: “You did all this? For me? Even after I ignored you all week?”“I know why you’ve been ignoring me. If you had given me a chance to explain.” He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, “I was never going to set up a dating profile. That was all Niall’s idea. He thought he was helping, but...it’s...it’s you, Louis. I just want to be with you. I was going to ask you out before Niall burst in and -”OR - the one where a miscommunication and a blackout lead Harry and Louis to admit their feelings for each other.





	It Could Be Sweet (like a long forgotten dream)

**Author's Note:**

> Time. It got away from me and I wasn't able to finish this fic properly. It's actually a scene from a much longer story, but who knows when I will ever get around to finishing that one, so I decided to submit this section for this fic fest.
> 
> It is completely unbeta'ed, so excuse any grammar, tense or punctuation issues - as I'm sure there are bound to be a ton.
> 
> Title comes from "It Could Be Sweet" by Portishead.
> 
> I own nothing except the words (and mistakes) written below.
> 
> Please do not repost this anywhere. I am not allowing for any reposts or translations. Thank you for understanding.
> 
> Without further ado...
> 
> Enjoy!

Louis opened the door to his apartment, reaching his hand out for the light switch as he stepped over the threshold into the front hallway.

“Well that’s just fucking great,” he sighed when nothing happened. Thinking that the outcome would somehow be different the second time, he tried flipping the switch again.

He had been wrong.

“Great. Fucking great.”

He should have known something wasn’t right as he walked home from the bus station. All of the shops that he passed on his way home had been dark. The bodega on the corner, the Starbucks down the street, the pharmacy two blocks over - none of them had power.

He should have known something wasn’t right as he walked up the single flight of stairs to his apartment - none of the lights in the hallway were on. Mr. Cardoza in 2C wasn’t blasting ‘Jeopardy’ like he did every night around this time. And Ms. Tucker in 2F wasn’t listening to that annoying nightly news broadcast she couldn’t seem to live without.

He should have known.

But...Louis had been too preoccupied, too in a rush to get home that he hadn’t noticed the whole city was without lights.

It had been an exhausting, non-stop week of grading papers for his twelfth grade romantic literature class, administering tests for his eleventh grade Shakespearean tragedies course as well as holding auditions for this year’s school musical.

After such a long, grueling week all Louis wanted to do was to come home, order a pizza, put his feet up and catch up on the next season of “Stranger Things.”

Standing in the dark, Louis realized that none of those things would be happening anytime soon.

As he entered the hallway, he pulled his phone from his pocket, pressing the flashlight button and slamming the door closed behind him.

Shadows danced across the wall as he made his way towards the kitchen. Dropping his keys onto the counter, he walked over to the fridge, whispering a prayer to himself that the light would come on when he opened it.

“Aw fuck” he mumbled when the inside of the fridge stayed dark. He grabbed a bottle of beer, thankful that it was still relatively cold, before shutting the door to the refrigerator and opening the junk drawer next to his hip.

So much for the pizza, relaxing and Netflix. His Friday night now consisted of rummaging through the drawers in his kitchen looking for anything that would help him see better in the dark - an actual flashlight or some candles, hell he’d even settle for a lighter. 

He searched for anything to help him with his number one fear, the one thing that Louis couldn’t handle, the one thing he hated more than anything in the entire world - the dark.

Ever since he was a little kid Louis had been afraid of the dark - demanding nightlights and numerous checks of his closet and under his bed before he would even consider shutting off the lights and closing his eyes.

It had all started in the third grade when Jimmy Foster had invited Louis over for a sleepover. He had slept over Jimmy’s house plenty of times before, so of course his mother had said yes.

That night after Jimmy’s parents had gone to bed, the boys had snuck downstairs to the living room. They picked out the scariest movie they could find from his father’s collection and pushed ‘play.’ 

Twenty minutes later Louis had the blanket pulled up over his eyes and was contemplating calling his mother to come and pick him up. But he knew that Jimmy would tell the whole third grade, maybe even the entire school what a scaredy cat he was - so he stuck it out and watched the rest of the movie through the slivers in between his fingers that were covering his eyes.

After that night Louis never had another sleepover with Jimmy Foster, or any of his other friends. 

He began having nightmares and so his mother bought him a nightlight to try and help ease his fear. She had hoped that he would eventually outgrow his fear as he got older, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. It actually intensified.

Louis would frequently creep into his mother’s room in the middle of the night and climb into bed next to her. She had allowed it until she got remarried, then Louis would sneak into his sister’s room and sleep in the rocking chair in the corner of her room.

In college things seemed to get a little better - he had a roommate who was understanding and made sure the nightlights around their apartment always had light bulbs, the flashlights always had batteries and the candles always had lighters next to them. He was never made fun of - his fear of the dark was their secret, never leaving the confines of their apartment.

Speaking of roommates, this night wouldn’t have been so bad if Niall had been home. But he had plans to take his girlfriend Becca out to dinner and a movie before spending the night at her place. 

Louis figured that since their date wasn’t going to happen because of the blackout, Niall must have taken her back to her place until morning.

And so that left Louis alone. 

In the dark. 

For the entire night.

“Just fucking great,” he heaved a deep breath as he resigned himself to the fact that he would be relying solely on his phone’s battery for the last 28%. He closed the drawer, cursing Niall for not replacing the flashlight from the last time he had used it - looking for his worn-out Vans in the wasteland that he called his bedroom. Louis thought about sifting through Niall’s closet for the flashlight, but decided not to waste the last of his phone’s life on a wild goose chase.

Louis carded his fingers through the fringe of his wavy brown hair before popping the top off of the beer bottle. He leaned against the counter and downed a long sip, weighing his limited options, seeing as how his car was still in the shop.

He could walk over to Harry and Liam’s - but it was a twenty minute walk that he wouldn’t have minded if the street lights were on.

He could call an Uber - but he was down to his last $50, needing to make it stretch for the next five days until he got paid again.

He could call and ask Harry to come over and keep him company for the night - but they had gotten into a fight the week before when Louis discovered Harry was considering making a profile on an online dating website.

It’s not that Louis didn’t want Harry to date, he just wanted Harry to date  _ him. _

Louis and Harry had met roughly four months ago through Louis’ good friend and co-worker, Liam. 

He and Liam both starting working at the local high school about two years ago - Louis teaching English while Liam taught math. They had become fast friends, taking their friendship outside the walls of the school.

Once Louis introduced Niall to Liam the three of them were as close as the three musketeers.

Liam had decided to throw a Halloween party at his place and had invited Harry, who lived in the apartment across the hall. They weren’t close friends per se, but Liam liked Harry and the feeling seemed to be mutual since Harry had eagerly accepted the invitation.

Liam introduced Louis to Harry and all it took was one look for Louis to want to take a chance on Harry. One look and Louis was immediately smitten. With Harry’s emerald green eyes. With Harry’s shoulder length chocolate curls. With Harry’s adorably delicious dimples. With Harry.

As the night wore on they made their way from the living room out onto the balcony for some privacy and talked - well, mainly flirted - with each other, exchanging phone numbers with promises of calls and texts.

And they did - sending text messages to each other throughout the day and spending hours on the phone together almost every night. 

When Harry’s roommate decided to get an apartment of his own with his girlfriend, Harry was left scrambling for a new place to live. Since Harry had become the fourth member of their friend group and they were all hanging out together as often as they could anyway, it only made sense for Harry to move across the hall and in with Liam.

However, Niall began dating Becca and Liam started seeing Rachel, which left Louis and Harry to hang out on their own together.

Not that Louis minded - not at all in fact. It meant that he got to have all of Harry’s undivided attention. 

During their late night conversations and their time being together, Louis learned all about Harry - his hopes, his dreams, his aspirations. And it wasn’t long before Louis’ feelings for Harry began to change into something more than just friendship. 

They got along so well and were so compatible in so many different ways - Harry was everything that Louis was looking for in a partner and he got the impression that Harry began having those same feelings towards him. Louis secretly hoped Harry would make the first move - asking him out on a date.

But, the days starting turning into weeks, which began turning into months and the question that Louis had so desperately wanted to hear was never asked. 

Louis couldn’t help but think that he had read Harry all wrong - maybe he simply wanted Louis as a friend and nothing more. Discouraged and disappointed, he confessed his feelings for Harry to Liam, who told him not to give up, told him maybe  _ he  _ needed to be the one to initiate the next step of their relationship. And so Louis had worked up the courage and was ready to ask Harry out.

The four guys had been hanging out the previous weekend at Liam and Harry’s playing poker and at one point in the night, Louis found himself alone in the kitchen with Harry.

Just as he was about to ask Harry out on a date, Niall burst into the room and started grilling Harry about the online dating profile he said he was going to set up.

To say Louis was crushed was an understatement. He yelled at Harry, saying it was a stupid idea, that those sites never worked then stormed out of the apartment. 

Louis ignored Harry’s texts and calls throughout the week. He was angry, he was hurt and the last thing he wanted to do was imagine Harry being with someone who wasn’t  _ him. _

He kept himself extremely busy so that he wouldn’t have a chance to think about it. But he missed Harry. He missed their stupid texts about absolutely nothing. He missed their late night phone calls. He missed hearing all about Harry’s day at the bakery.

He had almost picked up the phone Tuesday night to call Harry and ask him his opinion on a student’s paper. However, Louis’ stubborn side had won out and he was now faced with the possibility that he had lost his chance to be with Harry.

So that left Liam as his only option on the darkened Friday night.

He dialled Liam’s number, but before the call could even connect, the phone’s flashlight flickered off, powering the phone down and leaving him in almost complete darkness - the only light streaming into his apartment coming from the moon.

Louis threw his head back in defeat, looking up to the ceiling. “Fucking great.”

His head whipped around towards the front door as he heard a knock. Putting the beer bottle down, he made his way slowly through the dark to the entryway.

He opened the door, gasping as a light was shone into his face, “Harry? Is that you? What are you doing here?”

“Oh sorry, yeah it’s me.” Harry moved the flashlight down as he continued, “As soon as the power went out, Niall texted me that you were gonna be alone, so I came over to keep you company.” He held up his hands, which were loaded with shopping bags. “I bought goodies, gonna let me in?”

Louis was frozen for a moment, “umm, yeah of course.” He backed out of the way to let Harry pass, shutting the door and following Harry into the kitchen. 

Harry handed Louis the flashlight he had been carrying and started to unpack the bags. Candles, lighters, beer, Louis’ favorite potato chips, a Scrabble game, a deck of cards, a flashlight and batteries filled the counter.

“What’s all this?”

Harry turned towards him, “I know that you get sca...I know that you don’t like the dark, so I just thought you could use some company and a distraction or two so that you weren’t thinking about the power being out.” He turned back to the items, opening the batteries to put in the second flashlight.

“You did all this? For me? Even after I ignored you all week?”

“I know why you’ve been ignoring me. If you had given me a chance to explain.” He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, “I was never going to set up a dating profile. That was all Niall’s idea. He thought he was helping, but...it’s...it’s you, Louis. I just want to be with you. I was going to ask you out before Niall burst in and -”

Before Harry could finish, Louis closed the distance between them, bringing his lips up to meet Harry’s. He felt Harry sigh and bring his hands up, cupping his face.

He pulled back for a moment, their foreheads resting against each other’s. 

“I’ve wanted you to do that for months.” Harry whispered. “And I’d really like you to do it again.”

Louis looked to Harry, “yeah. Yeah, I’d really like that too.”

Harry moved his hands down to Louis' hips, pulling him closer as Louis reached up and wrapped his arms around Harry's neck. As Harry brought his lips to meet Louis' he could see that even in the dark, even with no lights, Louis’ smile was as bright as the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and thank you to the mods for this adorably delightful fic fest. I look forward to reading the other submissions.
> 
> Until next time...


End file.
